A Break in the Winter
19 February 2011 | at the dock
captn andy/windy

A Break in the Winter
Unfortunately the cold weather in December and January prevented much activity on the boat. It was much colder than normal, but we didn't get the huge
snow storms of last year. It looked like all that snow went up north. We had ice though. The ice eater at the dock failed, but the dockmaster had another
and soon had us clear of ice again. I started the engine and put in forward while still tied to the dock. I increased the throttle slowly and began to wash
sheets of ice behind the boat, increasing the area clear of ice.
One of my projects in the fall was to mount a wind generator. I incorrectly wire it with #12 size wire, it was supposed to take #6. The unit came from
ebay, a prototype from a shop that was experimenting with small wind generators. It has 6 blades and needed to be painted and assembled from a parts kit.
It is rated at 600 watts, but that was at a high wind speed. Still, compared to a 75 watt solar panel, the wind generator provides a lot of power.
The batteries, solar panels, solar charge controller, inverter, and DC panel in the starboard hull were wired finally. The DC panel is in the
pilothouse. Wires had to be carefully routed to avoid influencing the compass. The scheme is for two main circuits to feed the panel. Each consists of a
pair of solar panels, a charge controller feeding a pair of size 27 batteries, and an inverter. These two circuits feed a battery switch that feeds the DC
panel. The panel has 10 breakers to distribute power to 10 spaces, including the pilothouse, port and starboard forward bunks, galley, dinette, chartroom,
head, main bunk, vanity, and a future manual head in the stern of the starboard hull. There will be redundancy built in so that each breaker feeds two
spaces so that each space will have a pair of breakers feeding it and another space. This way, if a breaker pops, it will kill half the power in two spaces
but still enable the other breaker to feed those two spaces. You would lose half your lights in those two spaces, but still have the other half available.
Also the AC layout is planned to have a dual outlet in each hull. One spigot will be shore power, the other the inverter. The AC feed for that hull plug
into the outlet. This way, shore power and inverter power can't be mixed, it has to be one or the other.
There were 3 empty DC breaker positions on the DC panel, so I bought 3 switches to fill those positions. I plan to wire the wind generator to one
switch and the water generator to another. The panel has a voltage meter built in, so whichever battery is connected to the panel, I can monitor its voltage
and switch on the wind or water generator to charge that bank.
In order to work on the DC and other tasks in the pilothouse, it had to be emptied of the accumulated tools and other items stored there. All this was
piled on the deck table and covered with a tarp. I was then able to clean up my earlier job of removing wainscoating. Also I removed a cabinet in the
corner that may have been for a display or radio. My plan is to mount radios using brackets and use laptops for my navigation displays.
Another little task that could be done in cold weather was to rebuild the anchor windlass, again. It is a poor design, the motor, gearbox, and drum are
all mounted on the same vertical axis. If water gets past the seals in the drum, it can get into the gearbox. If it gets through the gearbox, it can get
into the motor. Replacement motor is about $500. I cleaned out the gearbox and used boat trailer axle grease to relubricate it. When I got the motor apart
two of the permanent magnets had come loose, shorting the armature to the motor body. I cleaned the interior of the motor and epoxied the magnets into
position, then reassembled it. It worked, but it's not long to replacement time.
I needed a photo for this blog but I couldn't find my camera. After much searching I decided to buy another. We were headed to St. Maarten for a
vacation trip. I found one on ebay, a Fujifilm J20 for less that $50 and bought it on a Monday, we were flying out on Saturday. I checked on reviews of
this camera and they were very negative. It arrived in the mail on Friday. As I packed my travel bag, there was my original camera, right where I had left
it after my last trip. I packed both cameras and did some comparison pictures. The Fuji looked fuzzier. I noticed the shutter seemed a little sluggish.
Also it looked like the lens might be dirty. I cleaned the lens with some tissue paper and continued comparing photos. I made sure the camera was steady.
The shots came out nearly identical to the other camera. Now we have a spare camera.
We had a break in the winter weather and I took advantage of it to do some work topside. The starboard turning block and rope clutches for the genoa
and staysail looked like they were allowing water to seep into the deck. The backing plates and bolts were discolored. I removed them and rebedded them
with silicone sealant. I suspect that the port side will need similar work, but that will have to wait.